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Kentucky Speedway to host 925 miles of NASCAR racing

June 26, 2012

Brad Keselowski is entered in all three races--Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Trucks--this weekend at Kentucky Speedway. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

For just the third time this year, all of NASCAR's major touring series are together at the same venue for a three-night program. The Camping World Truck Series has a 225-miler on Thursday night, the Nationwide Series has a 300-miler on Friday night and the Sprint Cup Series has a 400-miler on Saturday night, all at Kentucky Speedway at Sparta.

Each series opened its season in February at Daytona Beach, then shared the track early this month at Dover. They'll be together five more times this year: Bristol and Atlanta in August, then to close the season in November at Fort Worth, Phoenix and Homestead.

Seven different drivers have won this year's first seven Truck Series races: John King, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, James Buescher, points leader Justin Lofton, Todd Bodine and Johnny Sauter, the most recent winner three weeks ago in Texas. Timothy Peters (-5 points), rookie Ty Dillon (-12), Buescher (-23) and Parker Kligerman (-25) complete the top five in points. Brad Keselowski is the only Cup driver entered in the Truck Series race.

Two-race winner Elliott Sadler leads the Nationwide standings by 11 points over rookie Austin Dillon. Defending series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (a three-time winner this year), is 23 behind in third, with Sam Hornish Jr. (-34) and Cole Whitt (-75) completing the top five. (It's likely that Whitt is already out of the title hunt.) Cup regular Joey Logano has won five races (but doesn't earn Nationwide points), with Buescher, Kurt Busch, Keselowski and Nelson Piquet Jr. having each won once. Busch, Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Harvick and Joe Nemechek also have entered the Nationwide race.